Inspirational post from a cynic.

Yesterday my friend asked me a good question. It was: "Do you really, truly think that anyone, as far as the Western world is concerned, can do anything they really want to?" I said yes, and he told me that was good, because according to everyone he knows, by the time you reach your mid-20s you've given up on those dreams of becoming a rock star that juggles chain saw guitars or an astropaleantologist. Your life is now an endless, unescapable monotony, so why start something good now?

If you think about it, if you live in a first-world country, you really can do anything you want, as long as you try hard enough. Want to become an artist, but suck at art? Study art, take art classes, and practice, practice, practice. Want to be an astrophysicist, but aren't good at math? There are plenty of books and free resources that help sharpen your abilities. Want to be a mime? Wait, why the fuck do you want to be a mime? Do you want the shit beaten out of you on a daily basis?

I'm really down on myself a lot. I believe that my art sucks, my writing sucks, and everything that I do sucks. Then again, talent in most people besides freakish brain children isn't something that they're just born with. Talent is preserverance. Talent is practice, patience, a little bit of natural inclination, and a dash of fairy dust.

Most of the time I'll look at my art or writing and feel like it's the worst thing ever. Like, worse than Hitler 2. But you know, there are people out there that are worse, and successful. You know why? Because they kept trying and didn't give in to self-doubt.

There's no need to give up on your dreams. Would J.K. Rowling still be richer than God if she said, "Well, I'm a single mother on welfare. This is fine I guess." Would the Wright brothers have invented one of the single most important machines of human history if they listened to the critics laughing at their idea of flying through the air? Would man have discovered fire if they didn't keep banging those sticks and rocks together? Probably not.

Then again, you should still listen to those critics. Some are out to bring you down, while some serve as a good reference point against your flaws. These people will help you master your art and help you improve, so those others that are bringing you down will STFU.

The world is a cold, unsympathetic place. Why let it win? Punch it in the goddamn face. Kick it hard in the throat and scream, "SHUT UP, I just did what I wanted, bitch!" while in huddles in a fetal position and cries. As you leave it to its pain, grasping its choking throat, slide your sunglasses over your eyes and turn dramatically in the sunset, flicking your still-lit cigarette into its eye.

Just do what you want to do. You're going to die someday and the sun is going to explode, and the universe will finally collapse upon itself and wipe out every remnant of everything you ever knew and ever existed. Might as well have fun with it, and do what you want. Besides, you know, become Hitler 2 or something.

Federal holidays for genocide and slave trade.

So yesterday it was Columbus Day, celebrating the accidental sailing into the Caribbean islands by some Italian dude paid by some Spanish dudes, which began a regime of genocide and slave trade. Pretty upstanding guy, that Christopher.

For a while, there has been a small minority, mostly Native Americans and black Americans with some observant white Americans, asking to replace Columbus Day with Native American Day or a remembrance day for the suffering of minorities caused by Columbus's deeds. They've been unheard and we go about our business, saying a quiet "Fuck yeah Columbus" and cursing that the bank is closed.

Native Americans are an often ignored minority in the United States. Many people laugh about their casinos on their reservations, their alcoholism, and their desperation to cling to their culture. Most stay on reservations to keep a shred of their culture alive, but unfortunately these are pieces of land that the government gave to them that are infertile, far from jobs, and no where near cultural holy sites. Many start casinos to give their families a chance, and, if your culture stood in ruins around you and you couldn't find a job to feed your family, I'm sure you'd hit the bottle too.

So today, instead of celebrating the jerk that is Columbus, let's celebrate Native Americans, with some pictures and interesting facts.

• The United States Constitution is based enormously off of the laws of the Iroquois Nation, which included the Onondaga, Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca tribes (and later the Tuscarora). Without the Iroquios Nation, there would be no US Constitution with such a strong basis.
• The medicine that tribes across the United States and Canada used was far more advanced and effective than their European breathrens, and some of these same remedies are used in modern medicine to this day.
• Sequoia, the Cherokee man who created the Cherokee alphabet, is the one who sequoya trees are named after.
• Many tribes did not have a written language, and relied solely on the excellent memory of their storytellers to hear tales of their mythology.
• Native Americans did not have horses until European contact. This is because horses are not native to the Americans, and the ones the tribes had were escaped horses from Spanish, French, and English explorers.

I know very little Cherokee back when I became interesting in learning the language, so here's a ridiculously simple conversation in Tsalagi (the Cherokee language) itself! Yay!

Osiyo, dto hi tsu?
Osda, ni hi na?
Osadadv.
Howa!

Translation:
Yo, what up G.
Notta thang homes. How you doin'?
Chillin.
Aight!

As you can see I'm quite fluent, and the translation is highly accurate.

A Hopi girl and her adorable squash-blossom hairstyle reserved for maidens.

A man in traditional Cherokee clothing. No, not all of them wore feathers and buckskin pants.

Thought to be Crazy Horse, or Tashunka Witco. He was pretty cool.

A Pacific Northwestern carving of a Kwakwaka'wakw, Pugwis, an undersea spirit.

In conclusion, remember those who were slaughtered because some stuffy guy in a silly hat couldn't find his way to Indonesia, and celebrate them instead of him. My fiance is Cherokee, so I celebrated in the most fun way possible.

Movies: a reflection of our culture.

I watched a great documentary the other day called This Film is Not Yet Rated. Highly recommended if you love movies... it's available for streaming on Netflix. It talks about the standards set by the MPAA and how it controls culture.

One of the primary things the documentary talks about is how violence is accepted in American movies, sometimes even glorified, but nudity and sex are shameful and strongly regulated. Which, to me, doesn't make any sense. We were born nude. It's our natural state. Humans began to wear clothing to protect themselves from the elements, and through time, a nude figure was seen as provocative. If we didn't have sex, we wouldn't reproduce, and not to mention we would be awfully grumpy. Porno is one thing, but our culture is so shy of sex in general.

Pictured: the decay of decency.

A lot of movies we have nowadays are also ridiculously violent. Violence can be used in conjunction with other elements to tell a story. It's necessary for films such as Saving Private Ryan to portray a realistic warscape. However, anymore we have movie after movie of a plot centered solely on violence.

I'm not squeamish, but Hostel was disgusting. It was nothing more than a torture film with very little plot. Saw was an interesting concept, but as they made more and more movies they turned into snuff films. In a way, humans crave violence. We're warring, primate creatures underneath a sophisticated facade; it's instinct put into place for our survival. But sex is an instinct too, and a good one at that. Why is a romantic scene, or a nude person, so offensive to us when we don't blink an eye at decapitations and mutilations?

A good point that the documentary brought up was the fact that, for much of Europe, their movies are the complete opposite. Violence is regulated more strongly, and nudity and sex aren't a big deal. Look at Amelie: a sweet, quirky story that anyone could love. It's rated R in the US because of two five-second upper-body sex scenes with no nudity and a time-lapse picture of a pregnant woman with her breasts exposed.

The Lilith who is planting demons in our childrens' minds.

It's also interesting that gay couples are also looked down upon more strongly in movies than violence. Take But I'm a Cheerleader. Run-of-the-mill teen movie, except it's about a cheerleader who realizes she's a lesbian and her parents send her off to straight camp. There's a fully-clothed masturbation scene and a fully-clothed sex scene where her and her girlfriend do nothing but mess around a little, both very brief. Apparently this got it a NC-17 rating. American Pie depicts a guy having sex with a pie, and one of the Scary Movie films shows a guy blast a girl and glue her to the ceiling with his semen, yet those are only R. But I'm a Cheerleader got the same rating as a porno because it had a lesbian couple.

Maybe someday we'll come to terms with the fact that the rest of the English-speaking and Western world thinks we're a bunch of ultraconservative puritans and lighten up a bit. But until now, I guess we'll have to enjoy our horror films that aren't so much horror anymore as they are a contest to see who can get the most blood and viscera on screen.

This is normal and acceptable.

Art for art's sake.

I'm in what is hopefully my last semester of college. I would give anything to just drop out and begin searching for a trade job, but there's enormous pressure for me to continue. I don't care anymore. Why bother finishing my graphic design degree in an area where no graphics jobs exist, and where they do I'd be making more money waiting on tables? I would love to work in the industrial field, and I would've left college long ago if I knew jobs like a machinist existed. Just think, no general public to work with, $15-20/hour starting out, working with tools, union benefits... the list goes on and on. I want to start looking now but apparently I have to waste another couple of months stressing about school, and even then I may not actually be done.

Which brings me to the point about art in schools. I loved my first few studio classes. Figure drawing was somewhat disappointing (one model throughout the entire semester... drawing the same dude gets old after a few months), but other than that it was great.

Then I took Printmaking.

Printmaking is a class that would've been interesting if it wasn't for the fact that a) you can create the same things with graphics programs, but cheaper and better, with 1/4 of the time and effort, b) the class was extremely late. Like, 6PM-9PM. I already had class during the day, too. Longest freakin' Mondays and Wednesdays of my life. Not to mention, half the time working for that class was bringing stuff home or staying late to finish prints. Awful.

After that I began to hate art for art's sake little by little. Not art that you feel like making because you're inspired, or just because. Not because you had a great idea that you'd like to do, and don't care about whether you can sell it or not. I hate art for art's sake when you're forced to make it for other artists. Whether they want to admit it or not, the majority of the art community is pretty pretentious. Many artists will try to find meaning in human feces smeared across a canvas. Something about the decay of humanity or something.

The art community hates non-artistic art. Artistic art is avant garde, and a lot of it is great. You'll see some of the most interesting and creative pieces with avant garde. You also have dumb shit like Kasimir Malevich's White on White, which looks exactly like it sounds. It's also hanging in a museum. Here, here's a picture of the masterpiece:

Then there's kitsch. A lot of it is bad. Think of most of the stuff on DeviantArt, homemade decorations sold at flea markets, or fiber optic angel paintings at Wal-mart. That's kitsch. There's a great article on avant garde vs. kitsch by Clement Greenberg, which you can read here: http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html

But then there's good non-avant garde art, as well. I've heard of a lot of people considering commercial art, fantasy art, digital art, and some other forms kitsch, which isn't fair. In a sense, kitsch is inferior to real art and is created by popular demand, and sucks the whole creative process out. However, why does all of this art have to be considered inferior? I've seen some amazing artists on places such as Elfwood that create fantasy pieces that would be sadly considered kitsch. I've seen some terrible art that would be considered avant garde. Why would the terrible avant garde piece be considered superior to the wonderful drawing of an elf or a dragon?

I think it's a problem with the art community in itself. It searches for substance when there doesn't have to be any. It glorifies art made for itself, and dismisses anything made for pure aesthetics as trash. Sometimes, I just want to make something pretty. Is that so wrong? Why does White on White have to be superior to a huge, colorful mural made on a crumbling wall in a poor neighborhood? Why does a single line or paint slopped down a canvas have to be better than a piece of fanart inspired by World of Warcraft or Trigun?

I think it's because human beings like to feel superior. I get treated like crap by some customers because they think they're better. People harrassed blacks, Native Americans, Mexicans, Middle Easterners, and Asians for years (and continue to this day) because they think they're better. It's when a person sees himself or herself as better than everyone else that evil lingers in their heart.

Yeah, I just called the art community evil. Here's some art inferior to Mr. Malevich's art up there.